Monday, June 23, 2014

This Kansas City Monday morning we want to blow up and celebrate this MUST READ bit of writing that reveals some rather SHOCKING insight and REVELATION into the Toy Train Streetcar.

To wit . . .

CHECK OUT AWESOME TKC TIPSTER TESTIMONY EXPOSING THE STREETCAR OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE COSTS THAT WILL CUT INTO LOCAL SERVICES!!!

Moreover . . .

THE REAL PRICE OF THE TOY TRAIN STREETCAR SEEMS TO COME AT THE EXPENSE OF NEIGHBORHOODS AND KANSAS CITY INFRASTRUCTURE!!!

Here's the word . . .

O AND M

"I wanted to let you know one thing Mensa Man (mm) and Slie James will not tell you. The operation and maintenance cost of street cars is not included in the new tax for the streetcar. The o and m money will have to come out of the city budget. The money mainly pays for the electricity.

"Slie and MM knew this was coming so they created the street maintenance fund to pay for this. They said they would pave streets with the money, remember the $19 million of street paving lie? Last year they paved $12M and this year $11M ( no one ever explained what happened to the rest of the money.) Now this paving money will be used for o and m. Russ planned this from the beginning. The cost of o and m according to their website is $3.5 per mile per year. So the first phase is $7.7M, phase 2 will be $16.1M. That is a total of $24M.

"Even Slie can count and there is not enough money to run the toy train. So what they are doing, cut cut cut the city apart to pay for it. Public Works is laying off every quarter to reduce costs, fire has been cut, and the police are next. All so Russ can ride the rails like his Mom did. Just remember you were warned when trash pickup goes to every other week and bulky service is stopped. Wait till they cut snow removal. It is coming!!!! There is nothing left to cut. They will fire Troy to delay the blame coming to them, but it is coming.

"Just try and ask the council about this and watch the blank look on their faces, or watch them run! KC, you are about to be screwed, wake up and say no. You were warned!"
##########

59 Comments:

The city needs to charge all streetcar expenses to the 350 people who voted for it. Since this was a gerrymandered mail-in deal, it should be easy to mail the tax statements to those geniuses. (Or is that genii, Mensa boy?)

The city should not be involved in this because this is a TDD not a city wide project. We should be charging all the city employee's time to the TDD just charge city employee time to the airport and water department.

Wait, we were told that streetcars are cheaper and more efficient than buses, but the annual KCATA budget is $87M for 300 buses. So how the fuck is $3.5M per mile cheaper or more efficient than that?

Every time a public transit proposal is shot down in kc, its because some part of kc has to pay for it even if it doesn't serve them. We could afford a lot more new buses and routes, better connecting the northland and other areas of kc for the amount it costs to build, operate, and maintain two miles of redundant rail transit.

You math geniuses are just taking into account the COSTS of O and M but not what will be coming in from tickets/passes, advertising. And yes, probably the city will have to pony-up some of the money, but that's the cost of improving a city, making it more livable, less cars packed with 1 person inside, more walking, riding bikes and using of public transportation. Sheesh, any idea of progress that comes up and this blog is ready to criticize. Hey Tony, what have YOU done for the city? And no, criticizing and pseudo-journalism doesn't count.

If "Public Works Progress" means rigged voting, graft, lies and deception, theft, malfeasance, critical infrastructure monies diverted, and corruption then yes, ropes & trees are one way to go. Public pillories and stocks would be good as well. Flogging would be a great addition.

When there are no consequences for politicians/officials who steal, lie, rig elections, cheat and harm the public interest then the public needs to assert that "Public Servants" are to serve the public, NOT themselves at public expense.

Anyway, not only will the streetcar be "free" temporarily, but part of the streetcar authority's reasoning for not collecting fares (and this is on public record) is that the cost to install fare collecting equipment is net neutral to the fares they project to collect.

Of course theyre just attempting to hide costs and make front end costs appear as low as possible, but eventually, just like the Portland streetcar, when we run out of money, someone will suggest to start charging fares. And when we're still losing money, someone will suggest raising fares. Meanwhile, they'll simultaneously be attempting to expand the streetcar routes along existing bus routes and justifying the enormous costs by "increased" ridership numbers which are actually net neutral or a slight increase due to the fact that there are less bus routes available to frequent riders.

This is the way the game is played in every city, as any pragmatic transit expert will tell you. This is *not* the way to plan a public transit network, this is a way to irresponsibly funnel tax money into the pockets of millionaires and into a district that has seen probably 200% of the amount of investment that any other district in the city has seen in the past two decades.

The Klan Bear pridefully posts a reference to the hanging of a segment of this Country without trial or due justice. For that to be casually presented, is beyond disturbing.

Tonys reverence for anyone who makes these types of comments, illustrates a cultural segment that is contrary to every friggin principle that this country is founded on. Principles that people of this country have died for.

And the shits on this site feel comfcomfortable in using metaphorical illustrations of one of the embarrassimg times in our history.

Mau you experience the disrespect for dignity Thay you show for others.

"...And yes, probably the city will have to pony-up some of the money, but that's the cost of improving a city, making it more livable, less cars packed with 1 person inside, more walking, riding bikes and using of public transportation."

The O&M costs are not the pertinent issue (right now), it's that in an attempt to hide these costs, the City is raiding other funds "on the sly" (pun intended). Not really any different than the $500m water bonds, of which a significant portion is being used to relocate utilities under the streetcar line, which wouldn't need relocation if the streetcar wasn't coming.

I was on the fence about the merits of light rail / streetcars, but the following has placed me firmly in the "NO" camp:

- Gerrymandered TDD district

- PIAC funds being used for expansion studies

- Water bond monies being used for relocations whose costs rightfully belong in the streetcar budget

OP and JoCo residents will never have to bear the burden of the excessive taxes required to fund this Toy Train boondoggle. And of course the increasing JoCo population will never ride the streetcar to nowhere!!

You would need all the trees in Sherwood Forrest for the black racist cocksuckers who just this month have done this--

In recent days...

• In Los Angeles police are looking for two black females who beat and kicked a 65-year-old man to death.

• In Lexington, Kentucky 26-year-old Lance Corporal Jonathan Price was shot in the back. Police are searching for a black male with dreadlocks.

• In Pensacola, Florida a black male admitted he killed a 39-year-old white woman and stuffed her body in a trash bin in his living room.

• Also in Pensacola a security video camera captured a young black male violently punching a white female clerk before robbing the store.

• In South Bend, Indiana a white teenage boy was shot in the head as he was riding his bicycle. Two black teens were arrested.

• In Utah a 49-year-old man white man was shot in the head by a black male

• In Indianapolis a black male was video recording merrily skipping away from a convenient store where he robbed and shot the clerk in the head.

• Also in Indianapolis two black teens confessed last week to a 2010 crime spree that left an innocent white man 'lynched' by gunshot.

• In St Louis a 24-year-old white woman died of asphyxiation. Her body was found in her bath tub with bite marks. A black male was arrested for her murder.

• In St. Petersburg, Florida a 24-year-old white man was shot twice in the head by his black neighbor who complained is victim was talking too loud.

• The above are "lynchings" that were in local media in the past few weeks but were ignored by the national media and by lying, two-face white liberals who pretend to care about racism by exploiting generations-old lynchings.

Right out of the playbook...Can't argue with those that question the underhanded tactics used to get the streetcar vote through and hide the real costs? Latch on to distracting comments and hope the real issue is forgotten behind a wall of insults back and forth.

THE CITY IS ACTIVELY TRYING TO HIDE THE REAL COST OF THE STREETCAR, AND IS DOING SO ON MULTIPLE FRONTS....PIAC funds, water bonds, and now street maintenance funds. That's where the real outrage should be, not at some peckerhead trying to get you worked up (which appears to be working).

Well, in all fairness, when you are wrong and losing because of it, drumming up other low-information reactionaries who agree with you exclusively because they fear all change by hyperbole, fearmongering and outright lies IS the best strategy.

Sherry, Sue, Beth, Mike, Dan, Patrick and the puppetmaster all know they can't win a debate on the subject. It's why they tried to shout down the mayor and their fellow "neighbors" during the neighborhood meetings, it's why they are so scared of the ballot that they stole Brooksiders ability to vote on this from them, its why they are terrfied of Midtown or Eastsiders (aka, minorities) being allowed to vote on the project, it's why they continue to hurl frivolous lawsuits and baseless ethics complaints against the wall, hoping, praying one will stick, its why their facebook page and blog are mostly CATO/Show me anti-gubmint propaganda, it's why 10 people who have never ridden or relied on public transit of any kind, much less buses, are suddenly pretending to be advocates for "smart" transit, as long as that doesn't mean the "toy" technology that nearly every other comparable city in uses (because Bryan Stadler is smarter than 99% of professional, college educated transit planners in the world), it's why name calling is their platform (i.e., hipsters, renters, coffee shop workers, boondoggle, toy, etc.) and its why they rely on this blog, already a haven for trolls and city-haters to stroke their egos and make them feel relevant, important and affective.

See you and your $20K of suburban St Louis carpetbagging, outsider, astro-turf Sinquefield chump change on August 5th.

2:40, perhaps you misunderstood. It's the "pro" crowd who's trying to focus on the stupid racist comments and distract from the real issues, the "anti" crowd is just playing into their hand by continuing.

As to the issues you bring up:

1. If there is such overwhelming support for the streetcar plan, why bother hiding the real costs behind all the trickery. Surely if the support is truly so widespread, people will "pony-up" no matter the real cost.

2. I'm not sure the right to vote was "stolen" from Brooksiders. It looks an awful lot more like the City retreated in the face of any amount of vocal opposition lest the tide grow.

3. "...that every other comparable city uses". I'd love to see some sort of information that indicates that EVERY other comparable city has streetcar, because I can think of quite a few that don't, and the ones that do (especially those built in the last 10-15 years) are having SERIOUS financial issues keeping it afloat.

Let's see, three separate transportation taxes on the ballot this fall (streetcar X2, Clay's plan, and the MoDot tax). I'd guess all three fail and KCMO is back to rigging the streetcar vote by creating incredibly small and controllable TDDs by early next year.

11:35: Mensa boy's back. In all caps and all the time. And 2:40 is too intelligent for Mensa boy, so it's probably Hale-Cook/BNIM boy, but even though it's a more intelligent post, it still doesn't address why the city should spend money on a form of transit that is not as good as the buses we already have. And I'm one of the folks who relied on the bus when I worked downtown and still use it when I go downtown. And speaking of name calling, please read your own post, HC/BNIMB.

We had a street car but it was dismantled by GM. They can pay for building a new one.

"According to U.S. Department of Justice documents, officials of GM visited banks used by railways in Philadelphia, Dallas, Kansas City and other locations, and, by offering them millions in additional deposits, persuaded their rail clients to convert to motor vehicles."

transit (n): a : an act, process, or instance of passing through or overb : change, transitionc (1) : conveyance of persons or things from one place to another (2) : usu. local transportation especially of people by public conveyance; also : vehicles or a system engaged in such transportation

And Bryan is so right about the supporters feeling threatened by having to debate why Kansas City needs a streetcar. That's a debate they simply cannot win.

Just because your term is expiring and you need a job or the firm you work for is a potential streetcar contractor does not justify spending taxpayer dollars for something we don't need. And it doesn't take a little yellow Mensa pin to figure that one out.

Was it the Mayor Sly James who used the term CAVEMEN when speaking to white women in Brookside?Ever read the Afro Centrist myth about all whites being forced to live in the caves?Seems sort of like a racial identification term to me.

Song Of The Day & About TKC

Contact

Search TKC Archives

Subscribe To

Disclaimer

If believe you are the owner of a photo shared on TKC please send me a message and I will gladly provide credit or remove the image. Also . . . If you have a problem with something I've written then send an e-mail and we can discuss it further.

Additionally . . .

Please refrain from reading this blog if you don't have a sense of humor and a good looking mother.